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Well I’ve been pretty silent on here this last week. Why? Because all of my words have been going into my NaNo project. And guess what!! Now that I have my story all plotted out, it’s super easy for me to make my daily word count goals. I’m talking SUPER easy…as in, I can regularly write over 1,000 in a 30 minute sprint.

So my RoW80 goals for November were pretty much to do NaNo. And that is what I’ve been doing. So far, on the evening of the 9th day, I’ve written over 27,000 words. That means I’m averaging over 3,000 words a day. That’s just crazy. If I keep this up…or should I rephrase that…after keeping this up I’ll have a complete rough draft by then end of the month!

That’s just crazy talk. And it’s very exciting. I can’t wait to have it all written, put together in 1 document, and then I’ll print it and grab a red pen…because honestly it has to be a red pen…and read what I’ve been working on for the last couple months. That also terrifies me, but mostly I’m excited.

1. Still planning on NaNo…no real changes here. Book 2 is becoming a more solid plot/idea/design, which I think will help come NaNo with Book 1. I think I’m going to start reviewing my outlining for Book 1, plug in any more details, smooth out a couple hiccups. And then maybe let it rest until November 1st. Maybe I’ll watch a movie (on that note I watched Labor Day this weekend…I loved it, loved it! It’s definitely not for everyone, it’s slow, it’s all about character, I think there is substantially more time without dialogue than with dialogue and virtually no action scenes…but still amazing. My crush on Kate Winslet continues.)

2. Whoop, whoop. I finished this goal last week.

3. Honestly, I’ve been writing. Buuutttt…I write everything by hand. And quite frankly I haven’t counted my words this week. I got a lot written the other night…so…I’m good 🙂

4. Still not rereading, going to go over my snowflake outline. This outline is NOT the big outline I’ve been working on, more of a condensed one, so I don’t consider it cheating. Also, I kind of need to do it if I’m going to go forward.

5. No flash fiction so far this week. But the prompt has been posted (I get my prompts from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields – Addicted to Purple) and I feel like if I sit down I could come up with something. So maybe I need to sit down. No excuses, I got to get one written.

So not a lot has changed since my last check-in, but it’s still nice to actually think about what I have accomplished in the past few days. Especially when at first thought it didn’t seem like much, but I think I’m chugging along just fine 🙂 . So maybe it’s not so silly after all.

Also, I’m having a really hard time naming the groups/society/city/country in my story. I’ve named the individual characters but none of the larger groups. Does anybody else have this problem? Right now my names are: the Group, the Elite, the City…I’m not even kidding. On that same train, I still have no idea about a book title…hence I refer to the books as Book 1 and Book 2. At least I capitalize them, right? So what advice can you give to someone who’s struggling with naming larger entities?

This is how it feels to sleep in a clean bedroom. No, seriously, this amazing.

This week felt rather frustrating and like I wasn’t getting anywhere. But when it comes down to it, I had a couple highly productive days and a couple not so productive days…but only if we’re talking writing.

1. I’m still on track for doing NaNoWriMo. My outlining and character sketches are becoming much more solid. I have a very clear idea of the story, where it’s going, and how it gets there. I also am starting to figure out what happens after the story, which is amazing, because it’s giving me huge HUGE insight into the characters during the story. So this goal is coming right along.

2. DONE!!! Final conflict/resolution are plotted. Plotted, I tell you, plotted. So, I’ve been on a bit of a writer’s high from that.

3. 1000 words, 3 days a week. Like last week, I didn’t get 1000 words over 3 days, but I still got my 3000 words. So I say (again) that I completed the heart of this goal.

4. Still not rereading. But gearing up to. After all, now that I’ve finished the outlining, I need to start rereading to so I can start writing that first draft.

5. And still no flash fiction. Dang it, but oh well. My other goals have much higher priority. And we’ll see what this week’s inspiration is, hopefully it gets the creative juices flowing and I’ll come up with something good. If not, eh…

But, besides writing, I spent the last two whole days cleaning. Yay! Except not so fun. But now that it’s done, yay! I love sleeping in a clean room. And some of the stuff I got taken care of has just been sitting in boxes, hidden in rooms, since we moved in…over 4 months ago! So it needed to get taken care of, and now it is. And now I feel so much more relaxed in my home. Also, is there anything better than sleeping in clean pajamas, clean sheets, in a completely clean room? No, there is not. Go on, try it. It’s amazing, maybe even addictive. Too bad I have 2 munchkins who actively try to keep things messy. Oh well. The door to my bedroom is closed so I’ll get one more night in a perfectly clean room.

Well I’m one week into the first RoW I’ve actually started from the beginning.

As far as plotting/outlining. I’m doing awesome. I’ve figured out the final showdown. I’ve figured out the resolution. Sure, some of the details are fuzzy. But I have a pretty good idea about where I want to go and the route I want to take. So I’m pretty excited about that. As in, I’m super excited. I can’t stop talking about it. I’m actually starting to feel sorry for my husband…he keeps changing the subject but after about 2.3 seconds I bring it right back.

My word count goal was 1000 words 3 days a week. I didn’t do that. I did write 3000 words, just not in 3 days…so I give myself a gold star for achieving that goal. I definitely achieved the heart of the goal this week.

I’m doing great at not rereading/editing my work so far. That’s definitely been the easiest goal thus far.

No flash fiction this last week, but that was an every other week goal. So I need to pump one out this upcoming week. Hopefully I find this prompt somewhat more inspiring than the last. Although, if I was being honest, working with an uninspiring prompt would probably be very good for me.

This upcoming week might be a bit of a challenge. I work the first half of the week and then my husband leaves town for the second, so I’ll have to carve writing time between work, sleep (which I don’t get nearly enough of as is), and taking care of the kids. Hopefully my momentum at figuring out the final bit of my book can keep me going through this week! I believe Hemingway wrote this quote: Write drunk, edit sober. I’ve adopted that mantra…only I made it fit my life: Write exhausted to the point of delirium, edit rested. I still haven’t done any editing, so I might have to amend the last bit…it might be more of: Write exhausted to the point of delirium, edit hopped up on caffeine.

Any suggestions on how to write when your energy tank is most assuredly less than optimal?

After doing the last few weeks of RoW I’m excited to try again. I’m working on my same project, so many of my goals are the same, but as I’ve been writing the past couple weeks I’ve nailed down some more structure elements, so I’m hoping to continue in that arena.

Goals:

1. I want to attempt NaNo this year. I’m guessing with my obligations this will be too high of a word count for me. However, I have a few things going for me. What I am currently working on, which was originally going to be a rough draft, is turning out to be more of a fairly descriptive outline. It needs a tone of fleshing out to become anything near what I want it to be. So if I can finish the final conflict/big showdown and the resolution by the end of the month…then I should have a fairly decent outline to work from during November. Which also means that if I can complete NaNo I might have a pretty decent/fairly complete rough draft, and that’s exciting. We’ll see!

2. That leads into my next goal…finish plotting the final conflict and resolution by the end of October. In this stage I’m also hoping to address the major scenes, making sure there’s tension in each one and that all of them drive the plot forward. Pretty much this is my attempt to become more of a plotter and less of a pantser. I’ve been working on this plotting shindig for a couple weeks, and I’m pretty excited about how the story is coming together with just a touch more planning.

3. During this round I’m shooting for ~1000 words three days a week. Except for in November when I need to do WAAAYYYY more. Again, I’m flexible on making that goal. But I’ve already been talking about it with my husband, so he’ll be encouraging me, which always makes it easier in the goal accomplishing department.

4. As with the last round, no rereading until this first outline is complete. And then, no rereading of the rough draft as I turn the outline into a draft. At least, not until it’s done. I can do lots of editing once it’s done, but there’s no way I can finish it if I start editing during the writing process.

5. I’d like to post one flash fiction every other week. Except during November…all writing energy goes towards my draft.

So that about sums up what I am hoping to accomplish. 1) plot it out. 2) outline it up. 3) write it down. 4) push forward. 5) change it up. Did I miss anything? I should probably add a goal…remember to carve out time for family. They’re pretty awesome and I should hang out with them.

Well, this is my final check in of what was my first attempt at Round of Words in 80 days. And I started it late. And I didn’t meet all my goals.

My first goal was a specific word count every day. Yeah, nope. Didn’t happen. Not that it was a lot of words everyday, it was just trying to get it in everyday that was brutal. I work three 12s a week, and they are nightshifts…that is not so conducive for me and writing. However, it looks like I’m going to be working that shift for the foreseeable future (like at least another year) so I better figure out how to write, work, mom (yes, that’s a verb), and survive (I’ll sneak a shower or sleep in at least once a week 🙂 ). I changed my word count goal a couple weeks ago. It became more words a day, but not everyday. And I did better…even if I didn’t hit that word count everyday. I’m thinking for the upcoming round doing something similar, a few more words a day, but not everyday of the week.

My second goal was to not reread any of my current work. Nailed it! Yeah, it was a tad frustrating when I wanted to write some descriptions…did I already write that or just think it through? But for the most part, this goal was cake. And it allowed me to keep my progress in actually working towards a completed first draft and not just spinning my wheels reworking stuff.

My third goal was to write one flash fiction a week. Didn’t quite make this goal. I did write a couple, so that’s good. I’ll keep this goal in the upcoming round, it’s good for me to work on brevity, getting to the point (being conflict not just description), and thinking about something other than my current project.

All in all, I came to this round late, dipped my toes in the water, and decided to stick around for another go. Here’s hoping I do slightly better this next round. I’m also hoping to do NaNoWriMo this year…which means a lot more words a day. So I need to get those word writing muscles in shape and October sounds like a good month for training 🙂

Since my last check in, when I hadn’t accomplished a whole lot of tangible work, I’ve done a bit of writing.

1. I didn’t count how many words I wrote, but I got a decent amount of writing done on my novel. I also couldn’t sleep last night, but I refused to get out of bed to read/write. So instead I thought a lot about my book. I made a little bit of plot headway, but it definitely helped me untangle a few things that needed to be untangled.

2. Still not reading my first draft. Which, I’ve pretty much downgraded from first draft to detailed outline…

3. Wrote a flash fiction, which (especially considering I haven’t done one in a couple weeks) was actually pretty decent. I definitely struggle putting plot into a 100 word count piece. I’m great for a description, but plot…well…maybe…or maybe I’ll just hint at a plot. I felt there was more plot to this last one than most of my recent attempts. So, improvement! I’ll take it. But if you’re interested in reading it, here’s that post.

All right. Hopefully I can maintain this slow steady progress towards my goal!